


Hero of Man

by Jamcub



Category: Moana (2016)
Genre: Other, friendship is important too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-22
Updated: 2017-02-22
Packaged: 2018-09-26 06:35:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9871721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jamcub/pseuds/Jamcub
Summary: Tamatoa needs help turning around. The hero of man happens to be close by.





	

“Oh, come on.”

This was absolutely not what he had imagined when he thought of himself. Tamatoa, ruler of Lalotai, was currently stuck on his back with no way to get back on his seven legs, and no one was even making an attempt to help him. At all.

He’d tried, he really had, but the schools of fishes that passed him overhead weren’t too interested in him without his shining shell, and soon lost interest without something sparkling to keep them coming. Eventually, there were no more fish at all, and Tamatoa fell back to talking to himself.

“Honestly, if I was - if I was popular, I’d have plenty of people trying to help me. I mean… Fish…” He corrected himself, pulled a face. “If I had a nice Jamaican accent, they’d be desperate to help. Really. I know this for a fact.”

Something drifted overhead. It looked very vaguely like a fish, and Tamatoa realised that if he didn’t get back to his cave soon, he’d probably starve pretty soon. The bigger one of his claws waved at the water ahead of him, as though as he could somehow get this fish to come any closer than the others had been.

To his great surprise, the fish did come closer, curiously watching from the water high above him. Tamatoa knew it couldn’t really come any closer of its own accord, so he adopted his best soothing voice and called out to it.

“Here, fishy fishy. Come to Tamatoa - I swear, I’m not gonna - not gonna eat you. I just want a friend. Trust me.”

The fish swam a figure eight, and Tamatoa was about to resign and go back to talking to himself when it actually -

Left the water.

It dropped down and came to a flopping halt on top of the crustaceans’ belly, where it stayed and uselessly moved around. Tamatoa almost felt a little bad for it, trying to reach his claw over and scoop it up.

“Dumb little fish!” He teased when his pincer finally closed around its’ tail fin. “Honestly, fish are-”

He didn’t get to tell the fish just what he thought it was, for it suddenly let out a scream Tamatoa did not think a fish was capable of, leaving the crab holding very tightly onto a very wet and very displeased -

“Maui?!”

“It’s actually ‘Maui, Demigod of the wind and sea, shapeshif-” The man started lecturing him before Tamatoa shook him roughly, cutting him off.

“I know your name, everyone does. What do you want?”

“Well, see, after Moana-”

“What.” Tamatoa snapped. Maui was, as it were, still dangling from his leg, upside down and yet pretty happy for someone currently under threat of a giant crab. That confused Tamatoa. “Who’s that?”

“The human I sent to distract you-”

“The fish in a dress, huh?” His eyes moved, trying to focus on the tiny human in his hold. He had every mind to just… crush him, both for tearing off his leg and then tricking him, but then again - Maui was the only one that had any hope of actually being able to flip Tamatoa. And the crab knew that very well. He shifted.

“Yeah. So, after Moana and I left, a lot of stuff happened. Turns out I’m not actually a bad guy! We got the heart back to Te’fiti, too.” Maui tried to turn around in Tamatoa’s hold. “And when we did, I did a bit of thinking, really. About me, and you, and our friendship.”

Tamatoa snorted, grinding his massive teeth angrily. “We aren’t friends!” He pointed out, looking pretty displeased. Maui was still smiling, and that above all else made the crab furious beyond belief. How dare he smile when Tamatoa, ruler of Lalotai, was holding him at his mercy? There was nothing funny about that.

“Well, I do consider you a friend, either way.” Tamatoa would have loved to tune out Maui’s words, but the demigod did have quite the voice on him, even for something so small and insignificant. He begrudgingly listened.

“And I will admit I made mistakes. Tearing off your leg was one of them, for example-” Maui still tried to adjust his position, and Tamatoa finally had mercy on him and flipped him right side up. “And I would really like to make up for it.”

“It’s not like you can grow me new one, you know.” Tamatoa replied, sounding pretty whiny for a giant crab. “It’s alright, you know. A thousand years without a leg really gives you time to think.”

He wiggled the other seven. “I do have … quite a lot of them…” He did, even if he never really thought about it like that before. Maui, for example, still only had two of them, and if he lost one… Tamatoa would have shrugged if he had the anatomy for it.

“Are you just here to tell me sorry for tearing off my leg or…?” The crabs’ eyes narrowed.

“Oh, no no! I … I actually came here to…” Maui writhed in the crab’s hold, and Tamatoa reluctantly relinquished him, “I thought, hey, I should probably check up on my old friend Tamataoa-”

“I’m not friends with you!”

“-See if he needs any help turning around. And would you look at that.” Maui pointed at the rippled chestplate he was standing on. “Luckily, you happen to know just the right demigod for the job.”

Tamatoa’s eyes drifted over the tiny form of Maui’s, getting stuck on the massive fish hook he was still wielding. For a moment, he was torn between the hook and Maui - after all, that had been the centerpiece of his brilliance for hundreds of years, and technically Maui had stolen it. And he really, really wanted it back… His left pincer made an attempt at grabbing the hook, but Maui moved it out ofthe way.

“Nuh uh. That’s mine.” He held up a finger, wagging it as though he were talking to a disobedient child. Tamatoa found himself wanting to bite it off for that.

“Here’s the deal.” Maui rested his arm on the tip of the hook. “I flip you, and send you off to your cave, and you leave me and my friends alone. Pretty easy.”

Tamatoa considered his options. One one hand, he could just eat Maui - that’d make sure the Demigod wouldn’t be around to bother him ever again, but it’d leave him on his back.

on the other hand… Tamatoa gave a wave of his claw that Maui took as encouragement to proceed. The crustacean watched as he hopped off his chest.

Maui pushed the tip of his hook under the side of Tamatoa’s shell, giving it a good push. The crustacean swayed on his back, rocking back and forth, and Maui paused.

“Are you alright?” He called out. Tamatoa’s eyestalks crossed over each other, trying to focus on the tiny god next to him.

“Could be better, babe.” He said, not without a hefty dose of sarcasm. “Really, I hope you’re r-”

Maui didn’t let him finish, putting all his strength into the next push. Tamatoa was forced to keel over his side, his many legs scrabbling to find purchase on the ground below. He found himself flipped over eventually, only very slightly ill from the whiplash.

“...you helped me.” Moving his massive body around with surprising grace, he grabbed Maui and his hook off the floor, holding him up to his face. “You helped me. You-” Maui was grinning broadly, mumbling something about a job well done. Tamatoa scoffed, turning in a wide berth to see the damage done to his shell and the treasure attached to it. “You didn’t have to do this.”

“Yeah, but that’s what friends do.” Maui said, shrugging. Tamatoa didn’t bother correcting him this time, and Maui pointed his hook up at the water’s surface above.

“I’ve got something else in mind. Mind letting me go?”

Reluctantly, Tamatoa let go, and Maui swung his hook, turning into a hawk. He saluted with a wing, heading up into the waters, and disappearing with a splash. Before he could even question where Maui had gone, he’d returned, decidedly less feathery and with a mouth full of shark teeth.

“Hesh!” He said, spitting a mouthful of fish out. Tamatoa looked strangely touched.

“...for me?” He touched the part of his body that would maybe be considered a chest. “I … you shouldn’t have.” He picked the first few fish up, stuffing them into his mouth and forgetting to chew before speaking again.

“Now, since you helped me out, I -” The crab paused, his eyes crossing as he looked at the reflection of his own shining body in the water above. Something was amiss, and he anxiously tried to catch a glimpse of what was bothering him before even finishing his thanks.

When he did, the fish he had just been chewing on contently slipped out of his moth, landing on the floor with a wet slap. Maui looked up.

“My shell.” Tamatoa said, sounding positively distraught. “My shell! It’s- it’s cracked.” His voice did the same, and he spat out the last fish still in his mouth. “You cracked my shell. You - first my leg, now my shell! Is there nothing you won’t ruin for me?”

Maui had the presence of mind to turn into a hawk the moment Tamatoa brought his leftmost leg down, trying to crush him. Immediately, he followed the blur of brown as it shot up up into the air, out of reach of his claws and many legs.

“You broke me!”

The accusation hung between them, and Maui didn’t say anything for a long time. He hovered there, doing the bare minimum to keep out of Tamatoa’s reach, and just.. .watched. He could see the crack from up here, stark and obvious against the glittering gold of Tamatoa’s shell, flinching when he realised just how deep the groove ran.

“You like hurting me, don’t you. You think it’s funny.” He said, baring his barnacle-encrusted teeth at the hawk. “You like hurting me just because I-”

The hawk swooped down, sitting down on Tamatoa’s back to get a better look at the crack. Tamatoa flicked him up easily, but this time, he flew up before Tamatoa could get a good grip on him, earning the demigod a snarl from the crustacean.  
“Hero of man alright.” Tamata sneered, both of his eyes narrowing at the hawk flying just below the water’s surface. “You’re no hero. Wait til they figure that out. Because they will, trust me.”

Something moved above them both, big enough to blot out the sparse rays of sun from above. Bluish, dim light filled the space between them. “It might take them a long time, but they’ll figure out that all you are good at is ruining things.”

Tamatoa backed up, very slowly, darkness swallowing up the glowing markings that outlined his massive body. “Lives. Friendships... “ He said, bitterly. His words cut Maui deeper than his claws would ever be able to.

“Hero of man, indeed.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for my friend, who wanted to see more friendship between Maui and Tama. There it is.
> 
> Also inspired by art they did here: http://not-a-comedian.tumblr.com/post/157521563830/commission-for-deiji-doki-someones-armor-just


End file.
